A central
problem here was that the European Union is threatened with apoplexy
(congestion) at the centre and paralysis at the extremities. I will
recommend the beamway,
a lightweight
railway, (see picture below) as the solution to this double problem.
It is also a more energy saving means of transport, and I will now
point out various other benefits of this new technology.

It replaces the
old single-level ground transport paradigm with a new multilevel
paradigm. This can reduce the apoplexy (congestion) in central
areas. In peripheral areas, the
beamway goes above a quite undisturbed nature and agriculture areas.
Conventional heavy rail will block and raze the nature 100 times
more. More in the article The
Beamway.

It is suitable
for person and light cargo transport. Heavy transport will still be
left to the old solutions like conventional trains, but these will
now be able to devote themselves to the transport types most suitable
for them.

Why should the
capacity of the heavy rail be wasted on wagons carrying 70 passengers
– weighting perhaps 7 tons – when a wagon could take at
least 100 tons off the road instead? And why should the traditional
100 ton concept be chosen for high-speed passenger transport, when
wagons are to carry just 7 tons?

When a railway
tries to combine cargo and passenger transport, the heavy transport
will obstruct and slow down the fast passenger transport.

there
isn't room for a conventional railway line in addition to a road:
narrow valleys, road bridges, city streets, dams, dikes...

various
operations at various places should be done automatically:
agriculture,
firefighting, dike repair...

safety,
energy economy and CO2
emission are to be improved

Central
congestion

A paradigm
shift must now come for ground traffic: Single-level traffic layout
must be replaced by multilevel thinking, and the high-level parts of
the ground traffic should not be heavy ground traffic on bridges, but
be elevated lightweight rail.

The depicted
beamway can go above conventional ground traffic, even in the
undisturbed streets of an old city. And thanks to the elevator in the
train/tram/bus, station buildings are not required. This is
especially important in old cities.

The beamway
can, of course, also go in underground tunnels, and can more easily
be placed there than conventional railways can, because it is easier
to reroute a beamway.

Special events,
like olympic games, can get temporary beamway lines which can
afterwards be removed without leaving a trace.

Peripheral
traffic

Conventional
railways are not a good solution for cross-country traffic either,
because they require brutal ground levelling, and the tracks
constitute a barrier, unless either expensive or dangerous crossings
are used. The beamway, however, leaves the nature, farmlands etc.
quite undisturbed, thus saving both money and the nature. It
tolerates the natural unevenness, being able to compensate for
several meters of height variations by just varying the length of its
poles.

Such a railway
can simply follow existing roads, also over their bridges, but be
able to take many shortcuts. It could be built through existing road
tunnels, in which the train would behave like a bus. Or it could get
its own tunnels next to the road tunnels – which now have got
free escape routes. If the beam is held by racks standing upon the
ground, the whole railway can be displaced to the side in case of new
tunnels or other rerouting causes.

When traffic
needs a long tunnel – perhaps a submerged
floating tunnel – it will be expensive to make this for
cars in peripheral areas with little traffic, because cars need a
wide and well ventilated tunnel. The beamway, however, can transport
the cars through a (<4 meter diameter) tunnel or tube without
creating pollution there. And it can do this in a much safer, well
coordinated manner, without the need for complicated rescue
operations in case of an accident.

Boats in remote
districts are expensive to replace with railways or roads, but can
become less awkward if passenger
cabins are transferred between them and beamway trains.

Low-traffic
remote lines can still be economic when they can run automatically
(without a driver/conductor) like an elevator. (The suspended
monorails in Dortmund and Düsseldorf are running automatically,
without a driver.) It is important for small towns that they can do
without skilled train drivers, and that they needn't struggle with
removing snow from railway lines.

Expensive road
traffic infrastructure in sparsely populated areas needn't be
duplicated for railways, but can simply get an additional use.

What is
new?

Similar
suspended monorails are in use for short-distance lines various
places in Germany
and Japan, but I am suggesting many improvements on my website
on-nor.net. Five improvements are
particularly important:

The
proposed elevator in the middle
of the train permits passengers to enter and leave wherever the
train stops. No station structures are required. This is equally
valuable in city streets and rural areas. And the elevator is
wheelchair-friendly.

The
traditional monolithic steel beam (like SIPEM), which must be lifted
in place by two heavy cranes, is replaced by two
C-shaped half-beams which permit the beamway to extent
itself without beam lift help from heavy machinery on the
ground. These unique C-half-beams simplify manufacture, construction
logistics and maintenance. They can be bent somewhat sideways
(and/or twisted) for optimal curvature adjustments, and they can be
turned upside down if they sag downwards, or if the track is worn or
damaged.

Air-cushion
hovering, applied fully or partially, can give high speeds, also
with quite small wheels.

The
beamway train may (optionally) have exchangeable
passenger cabins which can rapidly be transferred to a boat
deck, a “bus trailer” or a conventional train freight
wagon. This is possible because the beamway can deliver a cabin to a
position just centimeters above such vehicles. This gives
intermodality not only to light cargo transport, but also to
passenger transport.

The same
beamway technology can be used for both urban and rural lines, so
that a rural line can continue into a city and serve as a
metropolitan
line there – although shorter wagons will probably be used
there, at least if the turns are sharp.

Technology
development

There is no
need to commit to a full infrastructure change. Beamway development
may be justified by merely one or a few of the above-mentioned
application areas.